• Gig of the week: Protex, Start Stop Start Again and more @ Black Box, Belfast

    December 2, 2013 - By 

    Presented by three Belfast independent record labels – Time To Be Proud, Punkerama and Scarred For Life Records – our gig of the week this is week is a special charity show at Black Box on Saturday, November December 7 headlined by legendary Belfast punk band Protex. With all proceeds going to children with cancer, the show will also feature sets from Stop Stop Start Again, Shock Treatment, 3D Shark and Mohican Jack. Ryan Fitzimmons from Sunglasses After Dark will also be performing a DJ set. at the show, which doubles up as the official release of the Punkerama Charity Single for…

  • The First Time: Steven McCool (Little Bear)

    December 2, 2013 - By 

    In the latest installment of The First Time, we ask Steven McCool from Derry band Little Bear to divulge the “firsts” of his music listening, loving and making life. Thanks, as ever, to the upstanding and excruciatingly talented Joe Laverty for the wonderful accompanying portrait photo of Steven. Nice, isn’t it? Check out more of Joe’s photography right here. First album you bought? Excluding the dodgy rave tapes that I bought from the local market, I think it might have been Radiohead – Pablo Honey, and/or Gomez – Bring It On.   First single you bought? The Hed Boys – ‘Girls…

  • Batman: Arkham Origins (Warner Bros., Multiformat)

    December 2, 2013 - By 

    You have to feel sorry for the residents of Gotham City. Since the construction of this fearsome metropolis they have contended with a motley crew of sadistic crimelords, drug-addicted luchadores and a seemingly limitless array of mutants. House prices there must be dirt cheap because the city has a death count higher than those of Ramsay Street, Albert Square and Emmerdale combined. It is, as any geek knows, troubled billionaire Bruce Wayne’s burden to protect Gotham from the evil forces threatening to tear it apart. Since the tragic death of his parents he has driven himself to the edge of…

  • Video exclusive: Our Krypton Son – Can’t Make You Come Back

    December 2, 2013 - By 

    Ahead of the its release on December 16, we have an exclusive first look at the video for ‘Can’t Make You Come Back’ by Derry singer-songwriter Chris McConaghy AKA Our Krypton Son. Created by videographer Tristan Crowe, the video features McConaghy leading an isolated existence, contemplative and longing, ruing the void left by the song’s subject matter. A perfectly appropriate visual accompaniment to a song imbued with McConaghy’s instantly recognisable, masterfully melancholic songwriting style. ‘Can’t Make You Come Back’ will be released via Smalltown America on December 16. Watch the video for it below.

  • Download: Aaron Shanley – Bedroom Tapes: Swiss Cottage Teal Roses

    December 2, 2013 - By 

    Lisburn lo-fi acoustic singer-songwriter Aaron Shanley has unveiled a new nine-track “bootleg” release, Bedroom Tapes: Swiss Cottage Teal Roses. Ahead of a fully-recorded studio release in the pipeline, Shanley said the release featured “generally unheard stuff that won’t ever be recorded again or featured on future albums” and ranges from the brilliantly understated – ‘Dear No One’ and the Death Cab For Cutie-esque ‘I Hope So, Laura’-  to more buoyant tracks including ‘She’s So Easy To Hold’ and ‘Trouble’, a track that evokes the heartfelt Americana of Foy Vance. Stream (or pay what you like for) Bedroom Tapes: Swiss Cottage Teal Roses below.

  • Stream: Fight Like Apes – Carousel

    December 2, 2013 - By 

    Ahead of a handful of pre-Christmas shows, Dublin four-piece Fight Like Apes have unveiled a new track titled ‘Carousel’. A typically urgent number from the electro-indie-punk-popmakers – propelled by scurrying synths, Books-esque sample and MayKay’s voracious vocal – it feature on the band’s from their forthcoming new album, set for release at some point in 2014. Fight Like Apes play Distillation 07 at Belfast’s Oh Yeah Centre on Saturday, December 14. Go here for the Facebook event page. They also play Roisin Dubh in Galway on December 5, Whelan’s, Dublin on December 20, and Cork’s Cyprus Avenue on December 27th. Check out the track below.

  • Stream: My Tribe Your Tribe – Vol. II EP

    December 2, 2013 - By 

    Dublin-based singer-songwriter and producer George Mercer AKA My Tribe Your Tribe is streaming his second solo EP, the aptly-titled Vol. II. Formerly of Boy Lights Fire, Mercer released Vol. 1 back in April. Vol. II is mainly comprised of material written since the musician moved to Dublin from Laois in June. Speaking of the release Mercer said “My direction felt like it was changing. A lot of the previous influences and styles of music I has been listening to over the past couple of years were surfacing in my writing.” “I wanted to bring the immediacy of folk and popular music into play,…